If you are a resident in Havering and have care and support needs and find it difficult to look after yourself, Adult Social Care may be able to provide you with help or support.
You may require an ‘assessment’ of care and support needs.
Anyone can request an assessment, but there may be better routes to help you. You can find information on support in your local community from our Local Area Coordinators.
About your assessment
Under the Care Act 2014, we have a duty to carry out an assessment of your needs for care and support regardless of whether those needs are likely to be eligible.
An assessment is a discussion with you to understand your situation and needs better.
The assessment will explore what help and support might be needed whilst also focusing on how we can help you to remain independent and reduce, delay or prevent your reliance on care and support now and in the future.
The assessment will determine if you are eligible for support from Adult Social Care.
We can also carry out a carer’s assessment to looks at what your needs are as well as the care and support you are willing and able to provide to another person and what.
A social care practitioner will help you to explore a variety of ways that can help meet your needs.
What an assessment involves
A social care practitioner will usually come to see you to find out how you're managing everyday tasks and understand what you are able to do for yourself.
We will have a discussion with you to determine what your support and wellbeing needs are as well as the outcomes you want to achieve.
As part of the assessment we will consider your personal support network (friends and family) and local support networks, eg community groups or faith centres, that might be able to support you or provide information and advice.
We call this Better Living.
We will also consider any risks you might be facing as well as carrying out a Mental Capacity Assessment if required.
Being supported through the assessment process
You can have a carer, family member or friend to assist you through the assessment or we can also provide access to an independent advocate to support you if required.
After your assessment
Your assessment will tell us if you are eligible for Social Care services under the Care Act 2014. You will be provided with a copy of your assessment by the social care staff working with you.
If you are not eligible for social care support, we will still provide you with information and advice and signposting to relevant services that may be able to support you.
If you are eligible for support, we will discuss what is available to help meet your needs and how you would like to be supported.
We will work with you to develop a ‘support plan’ which will set out the how you will achieve the outcomes identified in your assessment.
The support plan will be agreed with you and a copy provided to you.
You will have a personal budget which you can either receive directly to arrange and pay for your own care (we call this a Direct Payment), or we can arrange your care for you (we call this Brokerage).
You can also choose to have a combination of each option.
If you don’t agree with your assessment
If at any point you are unhappy with the outcome of your assessment or support plan you can speak to your social care worker or team manager.
If you don’t agree with your assessment, please let us know by talking or writing to the social worker who carried it out.
You should contact us within two weeks of the date of your assessment (we call this an appeal).
Please tell us why you think the assessment is wrong and what outcome you may wish to achieve. We will discuss this with a team manager who will then contact you to speak to you.
After talking with you, we may ask someone else to carry out a new assessment.
If you would like this to happen you should let us know within two weeks of when your second assessment, or the discussion with the manager, took place.
The person who chairs the panel, a senior manager, will write to you after the panel meeting, to explain its decision.
If you remain unhappy you can make a complaint under our Adult Social Care Statutory Complaints Procedure. Go to the complaints form.
Paying for your support and care
The assessment itself is free.
Unlike Health Care, Social Care support is not always free and most people will have to contribute towards the cost of their care and support.
Once the assessment and support plan are complete, we will complete a financial assessment (this is also known as a ‘means test’) to find out whether you're entitled to help with the cost of the care services and, if so, how much you need to contribute towards the cost.
Find more information about paying for your care
Reviewing your care and support
After you have your support plan in place we will contact you to check if the care and support you have is working for you and make sure that the support is at the right level for you.
A social care professional will get in touch to set up a convenient time to talk with you and anyone who helps you.
If at any point there is a change in your needs, either in that you improve or no longer require the same level of support or if you are finding some things more difficult to manage, you can contact us.
How to get an assessment
Our preferred method of contact is using our online referral form.
However, you can call Havering Adult Social Care on 01708 432000 during the office hours of 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
If it’s an emergency and outside our usual office hours you can call 01708 433999.
Getting an assessment for someone else
You can request a care needs assessment on behalf of someone else.
Make sure that you answer the form questions as if you were them.
You’ll need their permission to formally request an assessment for them unless they cannot make or communicate that decision themselves.
A relative, friend, GP, or carer can ask for an assessment on your behalf, with your permission.
If you lack mental capacity to decide about having an assessment, someone can ask for you to be assessed if they think this is in your best interests.
If you’re a carer, you're entitled to a carer’s assessment in your own right even if the person you care for does not want an assessment themselves.